(Orleans)– Gillnetting operations are underway at Storm Lake and Clear Lake, but they’re being delayed on the Iowa Great Lakes due to ice cover. However, Kim Hawkins, Manager of the Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery, says they have been netting northern pike from shallow areas and sloughs, which are ice-free…
“Locally we started netting for northern pike. Those are the fish that we capture in the sloughs around the lakes, so we are able to get a few fyke nets in to capture them on Sunday and we had a really good catch overnight and had plenty of fish to spawn. But as for walleye and muskies, we still have to wait for this darn ice to get off the lakes. So we’re just kind of in a holding pattern waiting for that to happen.”
Hawkins says she’s hoping they’ll be able to get onto the lakes by this weekend…
“Last year the ice went out pretty early. It was, I believe, the 30th of March, and so we started gillnetting around actually this time, the 10th or 11th of April, so it’s really not that late, it’s just a really interesting year with the 80 degree temperatures and ice still sitting there. So we’re still sitting in really good shape. I’m sure the fish are ready to spawn and do their thing, so as soon as that ice goes off we’ll be putting our boats in the water.”
She adds they do have walleye eggs in the Spirit Lake hatchery from Storm Lake and Clear Lake…
“We do have our satellite stations catching fish at Storm Lake and Clear Lake. Their ice went off late last week or even before that for Storm Lake, and they have been catching the walleyes.”
Hawkins says the fish hatchery in Orleans is currently open 8:00 am until 4:00 pm and closed during the noon hour on Monday through Friday. She says those hours will be expanded and they’ll be open during the weekend once the local netting operations kick into high gear locally.
